Scotland: Black Bun (Dark Holiday Fruitcake In Shortcrust Pastry)

There's a widespread tradition in European baking of holiday cakes that involve a contest or a prize. Normally these cakes have something special baked inside them -- a charm, a bean, whatever -- which marks out the lucky person who gets it as the King or Queen of the day.

In Scotland, the cake used for this has traditionally been Black Bun. The name is somewhat deceptive. It's not a bun, but a densely textured fruitcake inside a pastry case: and the insides aren't so much black as a really dark brown. In any case, Black Bun is always baked well ahead of the holiday so it has time to mature.

The basic Black Bun recipe has remained the same for hundreds of years. Interestingly, though, its original holiday has slipped out from under it and realigned itself. For centuries the Scots (like the Irish and other agrarian European societies) celebrated New Year's Day in the spring -- the idea being that the new year properly began when the first new growth did. But the calendar reforms of the mid-16th century started to change this way of thinking, and in 1599, King James VI of Scotland and his council officially changed the celebration date of New Year's to January 1st. As a result, Black Bun now starts turning up in Scottish stores around the same time the Christmas cakes do, and is present on many Scottish tables for the Hogmanay holiday. (The bean or charm formerly baked inside when Black Bun was made for the celebrations at Twelfth Night / January 6th is now often omitted, especially in commercially baked versions of the cake, for "health and safety" reasons.)

Scottish and UK users are fortunate in that they can find the cake at online sources like this one at ScottishGourmetFood.co.uk. The rest of us just have to make our Black Bun ourselves. Fortunately the recipe's not complicated. And a useful side effect of the baking is that Black Bun keeps for months if kept cool and dry in a tightly sealed cake tin.

Numerous sources for this recipe give alternative "cut down" lists of ingredients for the householder who might have felt (especially during periods of scarcity or rationing) that the financial outlay for all that dried fruit and spice was more than they wanted to spend at the moment. However, since the modern cook isn't likely to make Black Bun except as a specialty, this recipe is for the full and most luxurious version of the cake. It has been adapted / slightly modernized from one appearing in a booklet called "Christmas Fare" which was published by the Association of Independent Grocers of Scotland in 1957: the recipe appeared in the booklet courtesy of the great Scottish cookbook writer and folklorist F. Marian McNeill. (You'll be able to see an Adobe Reader / .PDF version of the whole booklet here when we upload it later in the "fruitcake season". Please stop by periodically to check for an update.)

Making Black Bun is essentially a two-stage process. First you make the pastry, then the filling: you line your chosen container with the pastry, fill it up, seal the top with more pastry, bake... and then wait. If you are looking for a Scottish cake to serve immediately, this is not the one. Black Bun must be allowed to mature / settle in a cake tin or other sealed container for at least ten days... and longer is better.

The shape of a Black Bun is negotiable. Some illustrations (like the one at the Wikipedia page) suggest that the cake has been made in a loaf tin. Other sources make a round cake: some even do it in a pie plate. European Cuisine Lady's preference is to do the Bun in a springform cake pan, which maks it possible to either leave it in the springform while maturing, or get it out in a hurry (and in one piece) to put away elsewhere.

The recipe:

For the crust:

• 3/4 lb. flour
• 4 ounces butter
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 beaten egg to bind

For the filling:

• 1 lb flour
• 2 lb Valencia raisins or other big, plump dark raisin, preferably organic (to avoid the taste of the sulfate preservatives)
• 2 pounds dried currants (substitute golden raisins / sultanas if you have trouble getting currants. You may like to mix in some other dried fruit, such as cranberries, but this will not be strictly traditional.)
• 6 ounces almonds
• 6 ounces mixed candied fruit peel
• 6 ounces granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 ounce ground ginger
• 1/2 ounce ground cloves or cinnamon
• 1 small teaspoon bicarbonate of soda / bread soda
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2 tablespoons black treacle / blackstrap molasses
• 1 tablespoon brandy or whiskey
• Enough beaten egg or buttermilk to moisten the mixture

First, to make the crust: sift the 3/4 pound of flour together with the salt, cut in the butter (you may want to do this in a food processor), stir in the baking powder, and add enough beaten egg to make a pliable dough. Do not overhandle this dough. Roll it out thin (saving enough to use to cover the cake) and use it to line a large greased pan: a 9-inch springform is ideal. Press the pastry dough well into the pan, pushing it into edges and corners. If there are any tears or joins, brush them lightly with water and seal them well. Leave about 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch of pastry at the top of the pan to seal the top crust to.

Preheat the oven to 350F / 175C.

For the filling: clean the dried fruit if necessary, and if the almonds have not been blanched and chopped already, do that yourself. Chop the peel finely (it's rarely chopped finely enough right out of the package).

Sift the flour. Mix the fruit with half the flour and the granulated sugar; add the allspice, black pepper, and other spices.

Sift the remainder of the flour with the baking soda and cream of tartar and stir into the fruit mixture. Add the brandy/whiskey and beaten egg or buttermilk, using just enough to moisten the mixture. (It should not be too soggy or batter-y, so go slowly at this stage so you don't overdo it.)

Pack this mixture into the prepared, pastry-lined pan. Flatten and even out the surface. Moisten the outer edges of the pastry with water: apply the pastry top and seal it to the edges.

With a skewer, make four holes through the top of the pastry, right down to the bottom of the pan. Use a fork to prick the surface of the top crust all over. Brush it with the beaten egg.

Bake the cake at 350F / 175C for approximately three hours. Test for doneness by thrusting a heated skewer down the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a rack in the pan or tin. When cold, turn out carefully onto a place covered with a piece of foil. Use more foil to wrap: seal into a cake tin or airtight plastic container. Keep for at least ten days in a cool dry place before attempting to cut the cake, or it will fall apart.

Black Bun will keep for weeks, even months, when kept cool and dry in a sealed container.